Josette Laughlin
) }} Josette '"'Jo"' Laughlin-Saltzman' (born Parker) was a major recurring character in The Vampire Diaries. Jo was the twin sister of Malachai Parker, the older sister of Joey Parker and three deceased unnamed siblings, as well as Olivia Parker and Lucas Parker. She was a doctor at the university hospital and described herself as a non-practicing witch, as she had relinquished her magic for safe keeping. This process is reversed in Christmas Through Your Eyes when she reactivates her powers after being given incentive by her twin, Malachai. Not being ready to merge with Kai, Luke takes her place and begins the merge. After the merge, Jo sees Kai and Luke unconscious and rushes over to Luke. Jo discovers that Kai won the merge and she cradles Luke's body as she mourns him. Although she loathed Kai for destroying her family, she agreed to help him with his post merge sickness by transferring her magic to him, considering the whole Gemini coven may suffer with his death. It is later discovered that she is pregnant with Alaric's baby and the two immediately get engaged. However, Jo and the twins are killed by Kai in I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime at their wedding. In ''I Carry Your Heart With Me'', Josette's body is resurrected by Bonnie through using the Phoenix Stone, making her one of the few resurrected supernatural beings that came back after the Other Side's collapse, however only her body is alive as an unknown spirit previously preserved in the Phoenix stone inhabited her corpse. Jo was a member of the Parker Family, and also a member of the Gemini Coven. History When Jo was 22-years-old, her twin brother Kai tried to gut her with a hunting knife. Since then, Jo has a large scar on her stomach. Jo was trying to protect her younger siblings, Luke and Liv, from being killed by Kai since he couldn't become the Gemini Coven's new leader until the other set of twins in the family were dead. She relinquished her magic into a kitchen knife and hid it in a tree stump on their front lawn to prevent Kai from absorbing her magic during the Coven's ritual. During this ritual, their father was able to use his magic to trap Kai in a purgatory dimension, and since then she has left the coven and her family behind. Eventually, Jo attended medical school to become a doctor. After graduating, she joined the Army as a medic. Eventually she left to teach future medic students. Season Six In'' I'll Remember, Jo is seen teaching some college students, among them are Elena and Liam. Jo asks the class a question and Liam raises his hand instantly but Jo picks on Elena, who answers it confidently, although going off topic. Later on in the episode, she is seen at a college party; she walks up to Alaric who has a flask of blood in his hand. She says to him "Ah, finally someone over 20" and introduces herself as Jo. She then notices the flask in his hand and asks if she could have a drink, to which Alaric answers with "Actually I'm a germaphobe", knowing that there is blood in the flask. Alaric then leaves to make a phone call to Elena. In ''Black Hole Sun, she meets Alaric in the hospital when he brings in a hungover Jeremy. After putting Jeremy on a saline drip. Alaric asks her for some advice and she flirts with him. In The World Has Turned and Left Me Here, Elena invites her to a homecoming party in the cornfield in an attempt to set her up with Alaric. She gets sneaked up on and frightened by a student and mentions to Alaric that she thinks that anything supernatural is 'not cool'. After Tyler causes the accident in the cornfield, she tends to several injured patients even though she herself had injured her arm. Later at the hospital she tells Alaric that she thinks they were meant to meet. Alaric compels her to not to kiss him because the evening was a disaster, he is an alcoholic, and boring. Yet she kisses him for the first time, this proved that Jo can't be compelled. In The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get, ''Alaric asks Elena to find out why Jo can't be compelled. Elena checks her coffee and her bracelet for vervain but Jo figures out what she is doing and tells her that she already knows that Elena and Alaric are vampires because he tried to compel her, she has terrible luck in her love life and has noticed the missing blood bags. Elena asks her if she is a witch but she doesn't comment. She confronts Alaric just as he is leaving for the Mystic falls border and they aren't able to talk so she follows him. He gets thrown into the anti-magic border and she rushes to help him and is able to treat his death wound so he becomes human. Later, he is admitted into hospital and thanks her for giving him his life back. In ''Do You Remember the First Time?, she discharges Alaric from the hospital to be her date for the Whitmore medical fundraiser where she is being honored for patenting a battlefield medical clamp. Damon accuses her for having an advantage because she is a witch but she says that she works hard and doesn't practice magic, and later mentions that she relinquished hers for safe keeping to separate herself from a 'tragically dysfunctional' family. She and Alaric go back to her apartment after the fundraiser and he spots a scar on her abdomen when she is changing her clothes, her asks her if she was in a car accident but she says that she lost her spleen when her brother tried to gut her with a hunting knife. In Fade Into You, Jo goes to Friendsgiving and runs into Liv, and doesn't recognize her. Elena asks her if she switched the Lady Whitmore actress's medical chart and she did. Luke plays a video of the twin's birthday and Jo discovers they are younger siblings who she hasn't seen in 18 years. After that, Jo reveals that they all the same family friend--Sheila Bennett. She also says that Sheila also helped put Kai away and that Kai is her twin brother. Jo also reveals that Kai killed 4 of their brothers and sisters, but was really targeting Liv and Luke. She says that since twins are in line to be leader, Kai wouldn't stand a chance unless Liv and Luke were alive. She then tells the story of Kai and how he is the way he is. Jo and Ric are talking and since her father believes they want to let Kai out, he retaliates by trying to kill Jo so Kai wouldn't be able to merge with her. She also says the Ascendant is with her and before she can say anything else, she collapses due to Joshua casting a spell to kill her. She tells Stefan to find an old tree stump that's in front of the house and there's knife in it. She tells him it can help dissipate the cloaking spell on the house and it does after Stefan throws it. After she convulses, Elena saves her by giving her blood. In I Alone, Jo and Alaric have a romantic moment, but unbeknownst to her, Damon compelled Alaric to get the truth about the Ascendant out of her since she's not saying much about it. He jokes about how her dad gave Alaric his blessing since he didn't kill him and gets to the subject about the Ascendant. She says she used to sleep with it under her bed, but it's now in her underwear drawer next to her pot. Jo soon finds out that the Ascendant is gone and asks Alaric where it is, but figures out Damon compelled him. Jo drives him across the Mystic Falls border and it is revealed Damon did compel him, but he didn't want to believe his own friend would compel him. In Christmas Through Your Eyes, Jo tells Alaric she'll be late and sees the patient until the other doctor she's with collapses. Jo asks her what happened to her until Kai injects her with a sedative. Kai meets Liv and Luke, and Jo is seen unconscious and tied up. Liv tells her that she should merge and Kai stabs her with the knife she put her magic into, but it doesn't work. Since she put her magic in by choice, so it would be her choice to take it back, unless she bleeds to death. Kai tells Liv to figure out how to put the magic back into her while he gets a bandage. While Kai is gone, Liv and Jo talk about how she's had 18 years and she owes it to the coven and them to defeat Kai so he won't be in charge. Liv starts to hand the knife back to Jo, but Kai siphons some magic off of her and he gives her pain, causing her nose to bleed. Jo picks up the knife and starts absorbing her magic back into her and breaks the chains she was tied up in. Alaric puts a gun to Kai's head an is about to kill him until Jo tells him it isn't fair to Liv and Luke to merge. She tells them she's going to beat Kai and Alaric knocks Kai out with the gun instead. Jo and Alaric say they'll lock Kai up until the eclipse and they kiss. In Woke Up With a Monster, Jo is seen practicing magic in the Salvatore Boarding House with Liv's help and is having trouble with it. Damon tries to have Liv help him rescue Elena who was kidnapped by Kai, but Luke takes her away. Jo decides to help and goes to the high school with Damon. After Kai walks by without seeing them, they realize Jo's invisibility spell worked. After they find Elena, Jo's nose starts to bleed, but doesn't show it to them. Damon notices Jo's nose bleeding and realizes cloaking three people is hard to her, then Kai sees them. She then runs away as she wouldn't be able to beat the way she is right now. Kai then catches up to her and he is shot in the shoulder by Jeremy with a crossbow and Alaric hugs her. Jo offers to help Elena get the blood out and Damon tells Alaric that she's not strong enough, but Alaric says they'll wait until Kai's stolen magic goes away and she'll beat him. In Prayer For the Dying, Jo tries to revive a withered plant, but it doesn't and throws it into the trash. She has Duke transfer Colin's medical records over to the center and since the vampire blood didn't heal the cancer, it has spread and made into a stage 10, which Jo says doesn't even exist. Jo decides to give Liz a human blood transfusion which might stabilize her condition, but Damon gives her another option--Kai, who can siphon magic and also Kai has a price to saving Liz, which is that he wants to merge with Jo. After Damon tells her that he plans on having Luke and Liv merge instead, Kai magic snaps his neck and Jo tells him she doesn't want to run from him anymore and goes with him. They arrive at the park and start the merge, cutting their hands and chanting, until Jo passes out. Luke arrives and tells Kai that instead of him and Jo, Kai and Luke are going to merge instead. Kai tells him they're not twins, but since Kai was in the prison world and didn't age pass 22, they are technically the same age and they share the same bloodline. Kai tries to leave, but Luke magically pulls him and they start. Jo then wakes up and tells Luke to stop as they merging continues. Both of them fall to the ground and Jo runs to Luke, cradling his head in her lap, telling him to wake up. Jo tells him whoever wakes up is the winner and Luke takes a breath and opens his eyes, but realizes he is now dead. Kai comes out victorious and then disappears, leaving Jo grieving for Luke. In Let Her Go, Jo is seen vomiting in the bathroom, Alaric is watching and insist on helping, Jo tells him that they are not far enough into the relationship for him to see her in the condition she is in. She tells Alaric that the Thai food they ate the night before does not agree with her, she feels like she is dying. There is a knock at the door and when Alaric answers it, it is Kai. Jo tells him that she has food poisoning but he begins to vomit blood before telling her she does not have food poisoning, she is vomiting because he is. He asks her to save him. At the hospital, Jo checks Kai's vitals and tells him there is nothing medically wrong with him, he states that is because he has a 'magical disease'. Kai begins to vomit blood again and grabs Jo's arm, beginning to absorb her magic, Alaric pulls him off and threatens to break seven bones in his hand. Kai retaliates saying if he dies, she dies, he apologizes for taking her magic but says that he is feeling better and she needs to give him her magic if he is to survive. After consulting Alaric, he tells her that he will love her with or without her magic, he made a joke telling her he is ninety-two percent certain. Jo agrees to give Kai her magic, in order to save the coven and the two prison worlds, Kai jokes that he assumes the other prison world is full of psychos like him. They begin the spell and when it is finished, Kai leaves, whispering something to Jo and telling her to have a nice life. When he is gone, Alaric asks what he whispered, she reveals that he told her she is pregnant and that is why she vomited that morning. Alaric asks her to marry him, and after explaining that she will not accept a pity proposal, she agrees. In ''A Bird in a Gilded Cage'' , Jo is seeing how Sarah is doing and tells her she's at the medical center and that she lost a lot of fluids. Jo tells Alaric she's not okay turning the center into a supernatural holding cell, but he wants to make sure Elena's blood is out of her system first so there isn't another Salvatore vampire. Jo mentions Sarah goes to Duke and says it would be a nice name, which alarms Alaric as he hasn't really been thinking of names. Jo then calls Alaric and he says he has a few names and she jokes to him that someone with the name like "Alaric" shouldn't name kids. After Alaric wakes from being knocked out earlier from a vervain bomb, Jo checks his eyes with a pen light and tells him she's marrying an idiot since he could've died. She tells him she needs him alive at least 18 years to help her raise the baby, then after it's of age, he can run around and attack vampires. In I Never Could Love Like That, Jo is seen helping cover up Caroline and Stefan's murder spree with Elena. Elena finally tells her about the fact that Kai is again trapped in a prison world. Jo seems overjoyed by this news but soon changes her face when she quickly responds with where's the ascendant, and that it needs to be destroyed because she didn't want her father getting his hands on it. Elena realizes that Jo is pregnant and they both have a heart to heart talk about what it is like to be human. At the end of the episode, Jo reveals that the companions that were traveling with Lily were siphoners and were turned into vampires, however they retained the ability to siphon magic and that they have an unlimited supply of magic to use as they can just siphon themselves. But with the ability to use magic, and the bloodlust, they are described as extremely deadly. She wants to destroy the ascendant because if Kai does get turned into a vampire, he mustn't be allowed to escape. He will be unstoppable. In Because, she and Alaric are on watch duty at the Bed & Breakfast where Stefan and Caroline are at. She and Alaric are talking about the wedding cake and the wedding itself being a few weeks away, and they start kissing until Elena shows up. After Caroline turns her humanity back on, Jo goes in to see how she is and tells Stefan he should see how she is. In I'd Leave My Happy Home For You, Elena and Bonnie surprise her with a male stripper for her bachelorette party during her last shift at work. Later, they all go to a bar, which Elena compelled everyone to go home so that it was just them. Bonnie brings up the fact of being human to Elena and they all have a heart to hear convocation about being human. Elena had to go, but Bonnie and Jo still partied on. Lily showed up looking for Bonnie, Bonnie attempted to stop her with her magic, however, didn't work well as she got stabbed in the neck. Lily pounces on Jo with her super speed and is about to feed on her when she shouts that she is pregnant. Lily then stops, and listens to the heartbeat of the baby, revealing that there was not just one heartbeat, there was two. Jo was shocked as Lily left. She then shows Alaric an ultrasound of the babies and he tells her that they're going to leave and hide from the coven so they won't get a hold of the twins. In I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime, it is the big day for her and Alaric, and she expresses wedding jitters. Later, she collapses and ends up in the hospital. She insists that Elena should not tell Alaric about the incident, although Elena already told him. As she is getting ready for the wedding, her father shows up in the room and asks her if he could walk her down the isle. During the wedding, Jo is about to tearfully say her wedding vows to Alaric, but suddenly pauses and it is discovered that she is being stabbed. She falls into Alaric's arms and her brother Kai emerges out of a cloaking spell with a bloody dagger. Jo then dies during all of the chaos going on. In I'm Thinking Of You All The While, her lifeless body is being held in a devastated Alaric's arms. Shortly afterwards, Alaric carries a body bag out to his car. Jo is the one in the body bag, and Alaric sadly zips the bag up. This is the last we see of Jo. Season Seven In ''I Carry Your Heart With Me'', her soulless body is on an autopsy table and she is resurrected by Bonnie using the Phoenix Stone. She opens her eyes and moves them, looking at Alaric, after this the episode ends. Personality Jo was described as a tough and accomplished doctor at the university hospital. She demands excellence from her students and has learned the hard way that there’s no room for error in her profession. She is a vegetarian. Physical Appearance Physically, Jo was a very beautiful young woman, with long jet black hair and piercing blue eyes. She standed about 5'10" and has slim and athletic figure. Powers and Abilities Jo possessed all the standard abilities of a human/witch. Weaknesses Jo had the typical weaknesses of a human/witch. Relationships Alaric Saltzman Alaric and Jo first met in I'll Remember. They had their first kiss in The World Has Turned and Left Me Here. In The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get, Jo finds out that Alaric is a vampire. Later, she saves Alaric from dying at the right time by medical treatment while he was in Mystic Falls and after magic stripped away his vampirism. In'' Do You Remember the First Time?, it is confirmed that they are dating and they share their second kiss. She soon starts to fall in love with him, and finds out from Kai that she is pregnant with his child. He proposes to her and they become happily engaged, up until their wedding where she is stabbed to death by Kai. This devastates Alaric. Malachai Parker Jo and Kai are twins and were the oldest children in their family. In 1994 when they were 22 years old, Kai , killed four of their six siblings and tried to gut her with a hunting knife. Since then, Jo has a large scar on her stomach. While trying to protect their younger siblings, Luke and Liv, from being killed by Kai (Since he was angry that he couldn't become the Gemini Coven's new leader until the other set of twins in the family are dead). Jo tricked him into thinking she would merge her powers with his and let him become the leader of their coven but actually ended up helping their father to imprison him in his hell. In [[I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime|''I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime]], Kai stabs Jo to death during her wedding ceremony, also killing her unborn twin babies. Elena Gilbert Elena is Jo's new medical student. She seems impressed by Elena's intelligence and Elena originally wanted to set Alaric up with Jo. She knows that Elena is a vampire. Jo helps Elena hiding her true identity from Liam by changing the medical report of Lady Whitmore. In Fade Into You, Elena saves Jo by giving her blood when Jo was almost killed by her father. After Elena loses her daylight ring to Kai in ''Woke Up With a Monster'', Jo makes her a new one. For Alaric and Jo's wedding, Jo makes Elena the maid of honor. Other Relationships *Jo and Liv (sisters/allies) *Caroline and Jo (allies) *Luke and Jo (brother/sister/former allies) *Joey and Jo (brother/sister) *Stefan and Jo (allies) *Liam and Jo (student/teacher) *Joshua and Jo (father and daughter) *Damon and Jo (allies/frenemies) *Bonnie and Jo (friends/allies) Appearances Season Six *''I'll Remember'' *''Black Hole Sun'' *''The World Has Turned and Left Me Here'' *''The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get'' *''Do You Remember the First Time?'' *''Fade Into You'' *''I Alone'' *''Christmas Through Your Eyes'' *''Woke Up With a Monster'' *''Prayer For the Dying'' *''Let Her Go'' *''A Bird in a Gilded Cage'' *''I Never Could Love Like That'' *''Because'' *''I'd Leave My Happy Home For You'' *''I'll Wed You in the Golden Summertime'' (Death) *''I'm Thinking Of You All The While'' (Corpse) Season Seven *''Day One of Twenty-Two Thousand, Give or Take'' (Mentioned) *''Never Let Me Go'' (Mentioned/Photo) *''Age of Innocence'' (Mentioned/Corpse) *''I Carry Your Heart With Me'' (Corpse/Resurrected Body/Possessed by Florence) *''Live Through This'' (Body possessed by Florence) *''Best Served Cold'' (Body possessed by Florence/Wedding Tape/Corpse) Name Josette is a French girl name. The meaning of the name is `'God Will Increase'`. Laughlin is of Irish origin; reduced Anglicized form of Gaelic Ó Lochlainn 'descendant of Lochlann', a personal name meaning 'stranger', originally a term denoting Scandinavia (a compound of loch 'lake', 'fjord' + lann 'land'). Parker is a family name of English origin and means "keeper of the park" from Old French. Trivia * Her given name is Josette Parker but she uses the name Dr. Josette Laughlin professionally. Before she appeared in the series her name was supposed to be Josie Robles but it was changed. * She is the second female doctor introduced in the series, after Meredith Fell and is also a lot like Meredith, both were love interests of Alaric. * Jo is one of only nine recurring characters that appeared in more than 10 episodes in their inaugural season. The other eight are Annabelle, who appeared in 11 episodes during Season One; Elijah Mikaelson, who appeared in 12 episodes during Season Two; Rebekah Mikaelson, who appeared in 17 episodes during Season Three; Atticus Shane who appeared in 11 episodes during Season Four; Nadia Petrova, Wes Maxfield & Enzo who appeared in 12 episodes each in Season Five and Kai who appeared in 16 episodes in Season Six. * She is a vegetarian & doesn't eat red meat as being a doctor, she's surrounded by blood all day. * She cannot be compelled as she's a witch. * In The World Has Turned and Left Me Here, she mentioned that she joined the US Army after medical school because of family problems. She later helps patients at a battlefield medical camp. * Kai revealed that he spared Jo because she was his "favorite sister." **However, this may be due to the fact that Jo was needed to complete the ritual for becoming the Gemini Coven's new leader. * Jo is revealed to be Kai's twin sister and the long-lost sister of Luke and Liv. * She stored her magic in the knife that Kai stabbed her with and hid it in a stump in front of her house. * Elena saves her life by healing her with her blood after her father tried to kill her so if Kai escaped he wouldn't become the new leader of the coven. * In Fade Into You, Jo reveals that she knew Bonnie's Grams, Sheila Bennett, and that she's the one who helped her father trap Kai in a 1994 purgatory universe. * Jo's father Joshua tells Damon that he's proud of her just before he tries to kill her to prevent Kai from merging with her and becoming the new leader of the Gemini Coven. * She regained her magic in ''Christmas Through Your Eyes''. *She makes a new daylight ring for Elena after her original ring was melted by her brother Kai in Woke Up With a Monster. *She has doubts about her magic when she fails to bring a dead plant back to life, however Elena tells her she didn't burst into flames walking across campus to the Whitmore Hospital with her new daylight ring that Jo made for her. *Jo gave her magic to Kai in order to keep him alive, this means she currently has no magic. * As of ''Let Her Go'', Jo is engaged to Alaric Saltzman, and is pregnant with his baby. * Although she originally thought she had food poisoning from eating Thai Food, Jo later found out she was actually pregnant with Alaric's child (from her brother Kai). **It is revealed in ''I'd Leave My Happy Home For You'' by Lily that she is pregnant with twins. * Jo was the second character to become pregnant on TVD, but the first to remain on the show after finding out of her pregnancy. ** The first character being Hayley Marshall, although Hayley went to the spin-off The Originals. * Jo was the second, also female, character to make an episode count of 17 in a single season, following Rebekah in Season 3. *Jo is the third of Alaric's love interests to die. **The first two were Isobel, who died from exposure to sunlight, and Jenna, who was staked by Klaus. *Jo was the fourth pregnant woman to be seen on The Vampire Diaries. The first was Hayley Marshall-Kenner, mother of Hope Mikaelson; seen in The Originals, Katerina Petrova, mother of Nadia Petrova; seen in a flashback in 500 Years of Solitude, and Gail, mother of Sarah Nelson; seen in a flashback in Black Hole Sun. **Jo, like Hayley, is the only one to be seen pregnant in present time, unlike the other two mothers whose pregnancies were shown in the past. **Jo, like Gail, was killed while still pregnant. Unfortunately, unlike Gail's baby, her babies died with her. ***This also makes her the second pregnant woman in the TVD/TO universe to not make it to term due to death. Quotes :Jo (to Alaric) : "I don't eat red meat. I look at blood all day. (beat) Because I work at the medical center. Not because I'm a serial killer or anything. I'm Jo." :Alaric: "I teach occult studies here." : Jo (to Alaric) : "I didn't know that was an actual thing." :Jo (to Alaric) : "A germaphobe. So, you're like the vegetarian of cool people." :- I'll Remember ---- :Jo (to Alaric) : "Oh, yeah. You mean, the ones we reserve for professional athletes and starving children in third-world countries? Yeah. I think we'll start with a full workup...Physical, blood, toxicology..." :Jo (to Alaric) : "Okay, one more piece of professional advice: when a successful, sexy, only moderately insecure doctor is flirting with you? Give her your undivided attention." :- Black Hole Sun ---- :Jo (to Alaric) : "Oh, Professor Bourbon. Perfect timing." :Jo (to Alaric) : "Everything I see there is natural. Gross, but natural. Zombies, ghosts, the undead... not cool." :Jo (to Tyler) : "Just try and keep him comfortable... Won't be long now." :Jo (to Alaric) : "I think you're great. You're brave, funny, not to mention maybe the most attractive man I've ever seen, and I feel completely comfortable telling you this because I'm old enough to know what I want. And call me crazy, but I think I was meant to know you." :Jo (to Alaric) : "This is the part where you say something, or kiss me, or run for the hills." :Jo (to Alaric) : "You're right, tonight was a literal disaster, and you're definitely an alcoholic...But you're far from boring, Ric." :- The World Has Turned and Left Me Here ---- : Jo (to Kai) : "Are you pregnant?" : - ''Let Her Go'' Gallery References See also Category:Characters Category:Female Characters Category:Recurring Characters Category:Protagonists Category:Witches Category:Supernatural Category:Parker Family Category:Saltzman Family Category:Deceased Category:Gemini Coven Category:The Vampire Diaries Season Six Characters Category:The Vampire Diaries Season Seven Characters